Sand and Dust
The always interesting Libyan expat blog, KhadijaTeri, has an entry about a huge dust storm that hit Northern Africa this year. NASA’s Earth observatory stated, “A dust storm several hundred kilometers across struck northern Africa on February 23, 2006. The storm carried Saharan dust across Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya.”
They may say that it originated in Algeria, but let me tell you, that wind didn’t just magically whip itself up there. Even though the Gorge is not technically a sandy desert (it’s more hammada than anything), when the wind starts to blow, it can have crazy effects. Poor satellite reception, both phone and television, are the main indicators. Not only that, but if you have long hair and are brazen enough to leave it uncovered during a windstorm, you’ll find that it later feels like it’s been sandblasted - which it has been, literally.
Check out this other photo of Morocco covered by Sahara dust - as you can see, the wind is blowing Northwest, while in the sandstorm mentioned above, it’s blowing East. I’m sure there are other examples where it blows other directions, because the wind here pretty much just does whatever it wants.
